[FFXI] Vana'diel 8th Census Released

[AladainAF]

I know not many people play FFXI, but for those that do, or are curious about "the state of the game", Square-Enix has recently released the 8th Vana'diel world-wide census. Pretty much gives every census breakdown anyone would possibly be interested in.

Official Link: The 8th Vana'diel Census

Formatted nicer: The 8th Vana'diel Census (05/16/2008) - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki

Few bullet points:

FINAL FANTASY XI's thriving community has grown to more than 500,000 users.

the average [daily] play time for a character this year comes to 171 minutes (about 2 hours and 50 minutes), which is slightly longer than last year (168 minutes) and the year before that (164 minutes).

According to the data, there were a total of 44,560 linkshells active at least once a day, which comes out to an average of 1,392 linkshells per World.

[Ravensign]

The word linkshell causes involuntary cringing in true humans. It should be a form of Turing test.

(I am not dissing on FFXI as much as expressing psychic pain from that god awful term)

[Elerion]

A linkshell is a guild, right?

[Jait]

Yeah. But I'm not sure what guilds have to do with population unless you're excluding inactive ones. EQ1 should release a census, "We have hit 1,000,000 guilds!"

In any event, FFXI is still doing very well. I'm sure the 500k+ number is inflated, but not by much.

[TwiNCannoN]

Good god, it even shows face graphic distribution.

[Kevincheese]

Some boxers, yeah.

[Jait]

To be more precise I mean the guilds with 1-2 folks that every MMO has, and continues to accumulate over the years. I think EQ2's Nagafen server has over 1k active guilds under that rule, but less than 3k players.

But if you're not actually working towards progression, or a shared goal of some sort, are you really a guild? I mean linkshell. Probably best left to the MMO Philosophers. I don't have any problem with folks that go this route. Usually they pay newbs to sign their charters, so it's all good. I'd just wish companies would come up with better ways of expressing their success than to test stupidity through pedantic displays of statistics.

If they're looking to appeal more to NA gamers they need a new UI, an expansion that holds players hands and gives them phat lewtz. Otherwise just forget it, and be happy with the base you have. It's a very good game, and one of the last that presents a truly difficult challenge.

I'd like to see some of their NPC scripts (Absolute Virtue and Adamantortoise come to mind) in the MMO's I play.

[Surlok TP]

Originally Posted by Jait

If they're looking to appeal more to NA gamers they need a new UI, an expansion that holds players hands and gives them phat lewtz. Otherwise just forget it, and be happy with the base you have. It's a very good game, and one of the last that presents a truly difficult challenge.

I would be happy with just having English speaking players to play with. I don't have a problem with the Asian community but when I was playing it it was difficult for it to feel like a community when every person I came across spoke a different language ...

[AladainAF]

Originally Posted by Jait

Yeah. But I'm not sure what guilds have to do with population unless you're excluding inactive ones.

"According to the data, there were a total of 44,560 linkshells active at least once a day, which comes out to an average of 1,392 linkshells per World."

I'd assume, if I'm reading this correctly, that 44,560 linkshells exist that have been active at least once per day for every day since the previous census.

There is simply too much to do in FFXI to have one linkshell for everything. It would be a management nightmare, plus, the fact you can job-hop and such has potential to cause an insane amount of loot drama. I couldn't even begin to imagine a LS that would do contested fights, Einherjar, Sky, Sea, progression, Exp, Assaults, HNMs, BCNM/ENMs, etc etc. That would be a logistical nightmare beyond anything I could think of.

Vinen can clarify if i'm wrong here (hes got way more ffxi raiding experience than I do), but the way linkshells generally work on Fenrir as far as I can tell is to be in one or two social LSes. Thats where you just bullshit with people, general chat, convo, etc. Then, your other LSes for raiding and end game are basically defined with a specific schedule they do things. As long as it fits your schedule, you're expected to go as a specific job combination, and not stray. Then you have LSes for certain zones, like a sky LS, dynamis LS, etc. Those LSes -only- do those particular things, and do not stray. They are also generally not filled up with bullshit chatter and stories about how your lead white mage is fucking the lead tank, etc. It is also very common to create a 6 person linkshell for static groups with a bunch of friends that you meet through your gaming experience. These static groups might also be for Assault runs every week. For some, I would assume the HNM LS can also be the social LS for a lot of people.

So in summary, the endgame, but still exping player who has a lot of jobs leveled might have something like...

Social LS
Sky LS
Dynamis LS
HNM LS
Static group #1 LS
Static group #2 LS

[Aria]

People only still play FFXI in hopes that one day they'll release an expansion that doesn't have them camping the 3 ground kings 8 years after the game came out.

Come on.

[Caocao]

Yet another person complaining about loot actually being valid even after 8 years

[Aria]

Originally Posted by Caocao

Yet another person complaining about loot actually being valid even after 8 years

I've played the game since launch and quit finally this year. If you think a majority of people aren't playing for loot I have some land to sell you.

[Fammaden]

They should get a new one out there. Up to date graphics and stuff. Build on what they learned, keep some of the hardcore and even grindy mentality but smooth out the things that many NA and PC players didn't like, maybe even rethink assstomping level 1-20 newbs so badly. Lots of people got so turned off by the power differential in mobs for a lowbie and the need to go solo easys at a glacial pace that they never actually got to see how good grouping can be in the game.

[Chrisb3]

They have probally changed it, but it seemed like you could only do lv1-10 solo. I had to have someone from my linkshell boost me to lv12 so I could start Dunes of Valkurm.

That place was horrible, ten levels hidden in a corner while someone pulls goblins to us? Having to run to a zone line to avoid death and exp loss? Best part is that when you finish the place you get to multiclass and do it all again!!!

I went on a big exploration journey from Bastok to the munchkin city and quit the game out of disgust when there was nothing to do there. Good times

[Fammaden]

There were fucking tons of quests in Windurst.